Chief Justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court has expressed his surprise that while businesses were closed in the country mosques were allowed to hold congregational prayers that could result in further spread of novel coonavirus in the country.
A five-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed is examining measures taken by the federal and the provincial governments so far against the virus.
While hearing the suo motu, Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed expressed his dismay over shutting down of business activities by the provincial governments and wondered whether the provinces were empowered to do that as it was against the law and constitution of the country.
The court expressed the hope that the respective governments would sit together again to frame a uniform national policy.
During the hearing Chief Justice Gulzar noted that financial assistance being doled out through the Ehsaas Cash initiative “lacked transparency”.
He further remarked that relief steps appeared to be taken “only on the paper” as the government’s efforts to tackle the pandemic remained unknown.
Nothing is being told to the court as to how government departments are working, remarked the chief justice.
Meanwhile, most of the mosques in the twin cities were found to be paying little heed to safety measures in line with the 20-point Ramadan guidelines agreed between religious scholars and President Arif Alvi during a meeting last month.
Among the salient points of the agreement, prayers were to be offered on the floor with a distance of six feet between two persons during the prayer and the faithful were required to wash hands for twenty seconds with soap before leaving for the mosque with masks on their faces.
Another important point of the guidelines was there would be no gatherings for iftar and suhoor in mosques during Ramadan and persons above 50 will also be sent back as they were most vulnerable to catch virus. It was also decided the floor of the mosques will be washed with chlorinated water.
However, not all these guidelines are being followed by the mosques, particularly maintenance of social distancing and refusal to above-50 persons to offer prayers.
